


After

by apositivedayview (fullbrightness)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, This Is Sad, and i wrote it awhile ago, but i never posted it, it's not shippy don't be fooled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 10:38:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19149331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullbrightness/pseuds/apositivedayview
Summary: Peter keeps an eye out for Morgan in the absence of her father. Or, maybe it's the other way around.





	After

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little blurb I typed up in the middle of the night after I saw Infinity War. I cried, so hey maybe you will too.

He never thought he'd see the day Tony Stark met his match. Even now, two weeks later, Peter can't believe that he's gone; and he was there when it happened, saw it first hand and up close. Had he even heard him when he told him they won, when he asked him not to go? Was he still listening, or had his subconscious already taken him away into the dark and quiet bliss of the afterlife? Surely Pepper's voice had broken through, it had to have, because it wasn't until she assured her husband that they'd be okay and now he could rest that he allowed himself to slip away. 

It broke his heart, watching his idol-his mentor-reach the point of exhaustion, sacrificing himself for everyone else. He had five years of being with his wife and daughter, Morgan, whom Peter didn't have the chance to meet and know until after she lost her father. He can't help but feel sick with guilt when he hangs out with her, being the big brother he would have always been to the little Stark. If her dad hadn't gone to save him, he could still be alive doing all the things she's doing now with him and Happy. 

First day of school, training wheels off her bike, drawings for the fridge and chattering about her day; he's missing all of it, because he gave up his really good life for hundreds of others. Peter wants to say that he'd be that selfless if it were reversed, if he had to bring back everyone. He would love to say that it was a no-brainer, trading a cushy lifestyle for the greater good; however, that smidgen of doubt and hesitation is always there. 

He never wanted to die, never wanted to leave Ned and MJ, Aunt May. Poor Aunt May, she was all alone for five years when he was gone, lost both men that were her world. How could he do that to her a second time? Then when Ned saw Peter at school in the hall, the longest they've ever gone without each other since they met, he held onto his best friend until the bell rang signaling they were late. Even then, they walked with arms slung across one another's shoulders to math.

It's not his place to discuss what occurred, to give a reason for the death of Tony, despite being an 'intern' at Stark Industries. Whenever asked, he just goes quiet and says he knows about as much as they do. The nightmares are the same for the most part, he wakes up gasping and covered in sweat, tears in his hazel eyes as he picks up the picture of him and Tony. 

People always say that when they first wake up, it's the best time of the day, because they forget momentarily that their loved one is dead; unfortunately, he doesn't have that luxury. Every so often he'll wake up Aunt May with his muttering and sobs in his sleep, and she'll come cradle his head in her lap and run her hands through his hair, stay with him until he passes out again. 

He finds it kind of pathetic himself, that he's taking this worse than Morgan, but she is only a kid. She hadn't even cried at the service, just asked Happy for a cheeseburger like her dad used to eat. 

She's caught him looking sadly at her a few times, and takes his hand, expression concerned as she asks, "Pe'r, what's the matter? Did you have a bad day?" It's always her who seems to notice his mood shifts, and he just ruffles her hair and tells her she's growing up so fast soon she'll be taller than him. She usually laughs, finding it unbelievable that she'll ever be bigger than him, and he scoops her up so they're at eye level. 

"You're going to be this tall some day, and I'll be old, so I'll be shrinking!" He proclaims, hunching his shoulders the slightest bit so she's taller. "You're going to look down at me when we talk." She squishes his cheeks and assures him that she looks up to him, and he's so silly. His moments with her never go without some sort of sentimental phrase, even without either of them meaning to be.  

Often he asks her about things before he came back, what she remembers, and there isn't much for her to tell-save for the last year-and she knows it seems to disappoint him, and she wishes she could so he wouldn't be so upset. Sometimes she even exaggerates, or tells the same stories with extra details or different versions, and he seems to perk up a little. Pepper has some videos they took through the missing time, but he's careful not to watch them with her around, only when he's hanging out alone with Morgan. 


End file.
